Blackthorne's Guide to Adventure
Heed The Call of Adventure! Welcome to the path of Adventure! Which based upon my time playing UWO it has been seen that Adventure is often the least chosen of the three professions. Which I believe to be due to the slower pace of adventure as opposed to the faster paces of trade and maritime. I have created this guide in order to share my joy for this vastly underrated profession and also to help aspiring adventurers as they head down the path of adventure. Getting Started It is recommended to first try and get through the schools or at least to intermediate for each class in order to learn the basics of the game and also in order to gain items such as the much needed job cards. As an adventurer these school quests can be somewhat tedious and boring due to wanting to get out into the world and being able to make some real discoveries, but as the old saying goes "good things come to those who wait". Earning Money One of the greatest challenges to an adventurer is the ability (or lack of ability) to make money. In which many adventurers (myself included) will take on a tradeskill in order to make a little money such as cooking, handicrafts,etc. I chose cooking and eventually handicrafts as they both worked well with my skills of procurement, collection and fishing and in which later I was able to cut gemstones for an income once my handicrafts was higher level. However I did not start out with a trade skill and I started out earning money in a true adventurer/vagabond fashion. I found that skills such as search when used in ports and in places in front of archive scholars, port officials and bankers often yielded great items such as treasure maps and recipe books which either I added to my personal collection or was able to sell for a profit. It should be noted that often people will throw out the skill books they get from an investment usually at the city official, banker or port official. In addition to the search skill the recognition skill can be very valuable especially if used in areas of high traffic at sea such as the various trade routes along western Africa and India which often yield dropped items and often dropped cargo such as gemstones, spices and gold. Another rewarding method to making money as an adventurer is to farm maps where either the person can collect the particular map one at a time and collect the treasure or through the help of a second person collect the particular map and hand it to a second person (I do not like this method as I feel it takes away from the game and is cheating in a way). Treasure maps are fairly easy to identify as they will either say something about treaure or with art may say something about a caravan, or in regards to biology a habitat map but not matter which catagory the map is it is fairly easy to identify treasure maps as they do not pertain to a specific discovery usually. It should be noted that one of the most rewarding treasure maps is the 14 biology map "clams habitat" out of calicut which often yields approximately 200 pearl and often an ancient treasure chest. It really goes without saying that adventure quests can be very rewarding and as a result yield valuable items which others will pay top price for such as the much coveted Excalibur and other swords such as Durandal, Balmung and Fragrarch and of course items such as the Gladiators helmet. All it takes is time, patience and the ability to do many adventure quests which often start with a quest chain and lead into other quests and which often end with gaining one item only to begin a new chain for something else. Exploring dungeons is still a relatively new concept but at the same time can yield a lot of money especially if one has good land battle skills and has learned some traps or at least has a decent stock of land battle items. Although this can be a good grind for money and to learn new traps it can get very dull and mundane after a while but then again adventure is really all a matter of one's personal taste. Survival At Sea It goes without saying that the sea can be a harsh place with the various disasters that can happen to the crew and of course the threat of pirates. Originally adventurers were often left alone by pirates as they do not really yield as much as would a trader or the standard multiboxer fleets full of nutmeg and mace. But it seems that recently adventurers are targets of pirates possibly just for sport or maybe even possible greed or just both. It is likely that the average adventurer may have problems and will most likely meet defeat at the hands of a pirate. Although meeting a pirate head to head may not be a very bright idea there are methods which may assist a person when at sea (excluding buying the secret anti war item from the NC shop). First it is important to know where pirates typically like to wait for potential victims. Areas such as Las Palmas, Capetown, Ambon, Calicut and Santo Domingo all often become ports for pirates waiting for a quick profit, even though a pirate can lie in wait mostly anywhere. It is common practice for a pirate to first cut in front of the victim in order to cut off escape route provide easy access for plunder. I have found that it is good to have a ship with a good turn rate and also have the steering skill which allows one to turn easily and make it somewhat difficult for a pirate to cut in front of you. Also it is a safe practice to sail near enemy NPC fleets if possible in hopes of getting attacked or in hopes of the pirate getting attacked which can provide a few seconds of time to get away from a pirate or at least to log out. In addition to avoidance techniques it is wise to only carry a few 100k at a time of money when possible and to keep all valuable items in the bank or in a shared bank in order to keep from getting plundered. It is wise to level up the storage skill which can help against being plundered but at the same time can create "large tribute goods" which can be made at the craftsman of the main ports and in the case of Amsterdam requires 80 sapphire, 80 lumber and 80 black pepper which of course is expensive to make but can be very useful to have as it will stop a pirate attack as it gives half of the money on you (which is good to only carry a small amount) and also protects you for a small amount of time against future attacks. Good Luck out there These are merely some suggestions based on techniques I have learned over my time play the game, I hope that you will find them to be useful.